Brewing Knowledge

Experience of our students to NIM

NIM (Nehru Institute of Mountaineering) is one of the most famous and bestmountaineering institute of Asia. Abhishek Maurya, Mohd Aneesh, Annapurna, RohanPanwar, Sagar Sharma, Ritesh Singh, Deepak Thapa, Rishabh Jain and Ayushi Ranawere the ten lucky students who got a wonderful chance to visit NIM and to participatein 181st adventure course .We all have only heard about this and now got theopportunity to be a part of this institute.Tired with the monotonous work, wishing for something new and exciting and thankfullygod has listened to our pray. 20 days before we were told about the trip to Uttarkashi.10 students have to be chosen for this .We feel very lucky to be a part of this trip and itslike dream come true for all of us.In the beginning we were very nervous as well as very excited as for the 1st time wewere going for a mountaineering trip without our parents or teachers which serve as aguidelines for us and help and guide us in every problem. But for 15 days we have to beall alone with no one around whom we know much and who cares about us expect ourgroup of 10 students but we overcame and hid our anxieties because we want a break.On the 1st day of our journey we were told to assembled there in Purkal and with theblessings of our teachers and elders we started our journey to Uttarkashi. We all werevery happy and were busy weaving our thoughts – what will be there, what we will bedoing there, how much fun we will be having so everything was going on and on in ourmind. In the evening we reached there we all were very happy as we were feeling likefree bird. There we first registered our name and were allotted the rooms in the hostel.Next day we had a brief introduction with all 90 students who were selected for thismountaineering trip like all of us, our instructors and principal of NIM which followed bydivision of students into groups. So we had 10 groups comprising 9 students each. Wewere very happy as we made many new friends. They shared their experiences andsome beautiful moments of their lives with all of us. Our instructors though not veryinteractive but helped us whenever we asked. They showed as their campus. Every daywe had physical exercises. After doing that we were like full of energy and felt veryactive. It was very tiring but we used to do that with full enjoyment and the breakfast wehad after that was osem that we forgot all our tiredness we were in.We were shown the equipments which we have to use during our adventure course.Some of them are Rucksack (bag), Mattress, sleeping bag, long selling, water bottle,mustine (utensil for eating food), wind sheeter, poncho (raincoat) etc. each one of uswas given the equipments and we were very happy to get that and it seems as if a childhas got some toys to play with. We were also laughing after hearing the names of theequipments. That day we were full of laughter. There we were given many tasks to dowhich were both adventurous as well as dangerous.Next day we all packed our bags for 4 days outing at Tehkla. It was a beautiful place.From hostel we marched 13-14 km to Tehkla! We were very tired after that long walk,so we had juice to refresh our body. After that we were back on our work, we pitchedtents and made arrangements for our task. There we did rock climbing, jumaring,rappling which we were finding very difficult after seeing others doing that. We werevery nervous and scared but when we did ourselves then that was the thing which wewere enjoying the most. We were no longer timid and nervous and if given a chance wewould have done it again.In the beginning we were very nervous as everything was new for us. We were thinkingthat it will be a little difficult for all of us to do but somehow we gathered our courageand were successful in accomplishing the given task. The task which we found the mostdifficult one was that of river crossing because the flow of water was very high as wellas it was very Cold that we were finding it very difficult to keep our balance in that heavyflow .Since we had not bathed for three days so we were also very excited to go into theriver. So all and all it was both terrifying and enjoying. In the evening we came backfrom there walking and we were so tired that we were looking for a bed where we couldstretch our arms and legs. We all looked pathetic.In the hostel we also had seen a movie ’Vertical limits’ which was based on Everestexpedition. It was a very beautiful movie, very inspiring that we wanted to climb theEverest in the same way as was done by the characters of the movie. Before oursecond outing we did artificial wall climbing, obstacle racing, cross country and also hadspeech competition. Artificial wall climbing was very tough but was very interesting todo. As a lizard crawl on the wall, in the same way we were also crawling on themountain. It was great fun. Obstacle race was also full of enjoyment, one of the mostinteresting part of this activity was Brahma bridge which was very scary and where wehave to maintain our balance on the rope.There in every step we were learning something without sitting in just one corner of aroom .We learnt how to pitch tents, reading maps etc .In the second outing we did pointto point march which was a group competition. In this we have to use map and hadbeen told to reach to our destination i.e. Oyali without the assistance of our instructors.It was very interesting; the distance which we had to cover was very long and had tocross the forest where the most troubling thing we faced were the leeches. We werevery tired that we did not want to walk further and also we were carrying those heavyequipped bags on our backs that it almost broke our backs.On reaching Oyali, we found it a beautiful place with grass looking so serene and quiet.There we pitched our tents, took rest for some time and then had dinner. In Oyali wevisited Chaurangi khal and Nachiketa Taal which were in the middle of the forest. Oyaliwas a big place. There we enjoyed the beauty of the nature and felt how calm it is. Wewere feeling lucky to be in the lap of nature. From Oyali we came by bus to hostel andfeeling so happy and relaxed that we do not have to walk back. There in the hostel weprepared for graduation ceremony and camp fun. We prepared dances, skit, songs,small plays etc for camp fun to relax ourselves. Preparing for camp fun was veryexciting as for the first time in those 15 days we were enjoying together and were free todo whatever we wanted . In graduation ceremony we got batches of NIM by the ChiefGuest and students were also awarded who came up with flying colour in differentactivities and competitions,In the evening we had our camp fun where we enjoyed a lot. We saw different types ofdances and plays and they were very thrilling. We also gave our performance in front ofthose 90 students and were feeling very confident and we were not taking that for acompetition, we were just enjoying ourselves and feeling free that we do not have to doany activity.But in some corner of our heart we were also sad as very soon we will be leaving thatplace and friends with whom we had spent those 15 days which were some of the mostbeautiful moments of our lives. We left the place at 6: 00a.m. All were very sad anddepressed. There we exchanged our numbers and id’s with our colleagues. Also wewere happy to go back home which is considered to be the most peaceful place for anyperson. All and all it was a good experience for all of us. We learnt many things fromthis trip to Uttarkashi and the most important of all, we want to thank PYDS and IAYPfor giving us this wonderful opportunity where we got to learn many new things and itwas a good exposure for all of us. Lastly we can say that always ready to facechallenges and enjoy life as much as you can that is what life is all about. Don’t backstep in any stage of life whether it is good or bad. In fact dare all the challenges for asuccessful life.

As Hellen Keller had rightly said : "Life is either a Daring Adventure....... Or Nothing !!!"